


Inherent Falsehoods

by Ketakoshka



Series: Dread Child Jon [7]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eldritch Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, Extinction!Jon, F/F, F/M, M/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:33:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 699
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28110963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ketakoshka/pseuds/Ketakoshka
Summary: Everything Jon has Known is a lie, and everything he loves must die.-Jon is the Extinction's kid.
Relationships: Basira Hussain/Alice "Daisy" Tonner, Georgie Barker/Melanie King, Martin Blackwood/Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, The Beholding & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist, The Buried & Jonathan "Jon" Sims | The Archivist
Series: Dread Child Jon [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1884709
Comments: 4
Kudos: 101





	Inherent Falsehoods

The bitter kiss of winter wind cuts through the wasteland as the eye that never closes turns its attention away from the six standing at the edge of a faultline hollowed into the earth and beyond. A brutal coughing racks the waif thin form of the _former_ Archivist as tears of ichor and blood pour from unseeing eyes. The knowledge pounds in his head and drives a spike through his brain. All that he is and has been… all that he's ever known is a lie.

"Jon…" he can hear Martin’s voice behind him, can feel the press of his husband's chest against his back, can see his face when he turns just so… "It's okay. It's okay to let go."

But Jon can't.

He turns in Martin’s grip and blinks monstrous tears away to stare into the face of the one person who's always seemed to love and forgive him for all that he's done. He expects that patient kindness to be gone, but Martin smiles in that sweet way that steals the breath from Jon's lungs and makes him feel, for just one second, that he's human.

"Go on…" Georgie looks so peaceful with Melanie in her arms, but her eyes are tired. She's tired of fighting every day to keep them safe… to keep Melanie from giving into the tendrils of Slaughter that remain. But angry, she's not… She loves Jon just the same as the moments before… before they Knew that Jon isn't what they thought.

There's a humming breath in Basira’s mouth as she and Daisy step closer, but it's Daisy who speaks their peace. "We knew something was going to happen… and it's better that we meet it head on, don't you think?" Jon closes his eyes tightly and shakes his head. "I don't want to run anymore," she continues, "none of us do… and you deserve peace."

"I… I don't want to lose anyone else," Jon admits, voice cracking with the effort to repel the anxious sorrow welling up in his soul.

"It's okay," Martin repeats and guides Jon to the ground as the girls come to surround them in quiet solidarity. "We'll always be with you, no matter what happens." His hand lies heavily on Jon's stilling heart. "And no matter what, I'll always love you…" Jon sobs into Martin’s chest, dying the dirty fabric with ichor and blood. "I always knew you were special."

* * *

There's a library in the twisting bowels of the broken void between worlds, one kept by only one entity and colored by memories of those long dead. There are books from hundreds of tongues, scattered knowledge and stories that have no one else to care for. There are people who flit through the isles with laughing faces and joyous bickering that ensures the dull, creeping dread of a ruined world cannot claim the last that knew it as it was.

The Dread Horrors screech beyond the library's walls, only daring to tempt their way inside when Extinction offers them a way to the doors. They can feel their nephew inside, one they'd scarred in their clamor for the lives of the billions of humans that only he could offer to them. Extinction knows their guilt to be genuine, but Jon… No, that's not the name his creator had gifted him… It isn't a name befitting the Herald of Extinction.

Thana is the one who must forgive them in the end, and only two have drawn him out of his shell: Buried and Beholding.

On the days where they slip into Thana's library, they find him in the indoor garden lit by a Terran sky or an infinite cosmos of jewels for the taking. Buried sings the plants into massive, colorful blooms and broad leaves that surround her nephew with new life, and Beholding tells tales of planets still far from their reach and reminds him of all it knows of those now lost...

And in the quiet nights under the cosmos's lights, Thana can almost delude himself into the fantasy that they're all still there, called and kept by the god of this realm unending…

His whole was a lie, so why bother telling truths now?


End file.
